E-Sports, Virtual Reality and Cinemas Center

Mollet del Vallés is a town of more than 50,000 inhabitants located 20km away from Barcelona. With a long agricultural tradition and a very strong industry network, it has a long cultural tradition and is provided with great facilities such as the Can Mula Library, the Abelló Museum and the Municipal Theater. Between the Town Hall and the Market, in the Plaça Major, the premises to be refurbished are part of this group of buildings, built at the end of the 80s and characterized by their cubic volumetry.

Basal Space in Mollet del Vallés means the reactivation of quality leisure activities in the city center. In large premises, located in the Plaça Major, where there are currently some disused movie theaters, the project proposes its reform and expansion to transform the space into a reference for moviegoers, E-Sports, virtual reality and simulation fans. The project also intervenes in the outdoor space, in the adjacent square and at the same level of the premises with restoration projects.

An ‘almost virtual’ cube emerges from the space below as an attraction for the multiple tasks taking place below. The cube is thought as a symbol of the 3D activities and it represents at a real scale the dimensions of the complex indoors. It is made with a wired structure, metal mesh and light and it privatizes the space by getting separated from the adjoining buildings. It provides a certain intimacy to the new center.  From the street level, from the city, a grandstand brings access to the lower level and at the same time insinuates and leads to the multipurpose space inside.  The cube rests on a vegetation base, which hides the restoration equipment and on the first floor generates a green area with native species in a space, today, still dominated by gray.